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I'm trying to shrink some partitions on my laptop so I can dual boot another OS, and I need about 6GB of space to do this.
Unfortunately when I got my laptop and trashed the default Vista install, I didn't think ahead about this and I ended up making an Extended partition in the free space, and I've been using it since then.
I've managed to already shrink it by nearly 12GB, but I can't then create a primary partition in the free space because it seems the extended partition wants to remain the allocated owner of this space.
I was hoping I could get somewhere with diskpart
but I got as far as shrinking the same volume another 6GB (and hence it is now 12GB).
My question is: can I unallocate (shrink) the Extended partition so I can create a primary partition, or do I have to remove the extended partition so a primary partition can exist in front of it?
what "other OS" do you want to boot? – quack quixote – 2010-01-14T20:32:47.663
I had a similar problem not to long ago. I poorly estimated the amount of space for the primary partition. My theory on why the 'c' partition cannot be expanded is that the drive manage desires to keep the 'c' partition continuous. If I might continue to hypothesize if one used a degfragmenter to move the data to the end of the partition prior to shrinking. one might be able to shrink the leading edge. But then I solve my problem with a second hard disk. A partition app like partition magic may do the trick. – greyDrifter – 2010-01-15T05:17:48.363
@greyDrifter: That's an interesting point about keeping the partition continuous - I think you're right, but I can't install another disk on my laptop. My last resort is to use partition magic or some sort to image the D drive so I can delete the extended partition, in order to create a new bootable one. Not my personal preference but I'm willing to go there. – Codesleuth – 2010-01-15T09:15:35.717